kids

Your income bracket may predict how likely you are to send your kids back to school this fall

By Shelton Muro 2 months ago

Several factors, such as income, job flexibility and health concerns, influence a family's decision to send their children back to school this year. (Photo: Getty Images)
Several factors, such as income, job flexibility and health concerns, influence a family’s decision to send their children back to school this year. (Photo: Getty Images)

More than 30 percent of parents plan to keep their children at home if schools reopen in the fall, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

For the study, involving 730 U.S. parents of school-age children (ages 5 to 17), researchers asked parents whether they planned to either opt for distance learning at home or send their kids to in-person school, if available, and looked at what factors influenced their decisions.

More than 30 percent of parents reported they will “probably or definitely” keep their child home if schools open for in-person instruction, while nearly 50 percent reported they would “probably or definitely” send their child to school this fall. Several factors influenced these decisions, from a family’s socioeconomic

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Why these Calgary parents plan to keep their kids home

By Shelton Muro 2 months ago

A child who’s too anxious about the COVID-19 pandemic to return to school. An immunocompromised single mom whose doctor recommended keeping her daughter out of classes. A parent who feels the Alberta government’s return to school plan is “reckless.” These are just some of the Calgarians making the heart-wrenching decision to opt for the public school system’s online learning this fall rather than sending kids back to the classrooms.

Registration for the Calgary Board of Education’s short-term Hub online learning program opened this week. It’s meant as an alternative for families who aren’t comfortable returning for “near-normal” in-person learning with the ongoing pandemic.

For Tamara Rose, who has shared her experience with the education system with CBC News since the outset of the pandemic, keeping her seven-year-old daughter home in September is a necessity. 

“My doctor didn’t recommend for me to put her back into class,” she said. “So now

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12 fun kids’ face masks for the COVID-19 pandemic

By Shelton Muro 2 months ago

<span class="copyright">(Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times)</span>
(Micah Fluellen / Los Angeles Times)

With in-person school just starting for many children, face masks have become the new backpacks in terms of being necessities for at least 2020 and 2021. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that children 2 and older “wear masks in public and when around people who don’t live in your household.”

As the world adjusts to life in the age of COVID-19, it’s safe to say many parents are probably adding fashionable face masks to their children’s back-to-school shopping lists. Although students in Los Angeles may be confined to online learning, kids in other states are returning to the classroom, for which the CDC also states, “Appropriate and consistent use of cloth face coverings is most important when students, teachers and staff are indoors and when social distancing of at least 6 feet is difficult to implement or maintain.”

We’ve rounded up

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Why Weighing Kids In Schools Is So Problematic

By Shelton Muro 2 months ago

This week on Twitter, a heated debate began after the U.K.-based National Obesity Forum suggested that children should be weighed in schools come September and again in the spring. The intention: to track weight gained during lockdown due to the pandemic. Advocates argued that it’s important to track kids’ weight, and how COVID-19 has affected it. They say that the info could be used to implement health-promoting interventions. But the proposal was met with swift backlash from people who emphasized that the practice would likely do more harm than good.

“When I was 10, we were forced to weigh ourselves at school and then share with the class. I still haven’t recovered from the things they said,” one Twitter user wrote.  

Actress Jameela Jamil commented: “Hard pass. Being weighed at school was truly the minute my eating disorder started at 12. I can trace it back to

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Do kids still need vaccinations if they are learning online during the COVID-19 pandemic?

By Shelton Muro 2 months ago

The 2020-2021 school year will soon begin the way it ended in South Florida: online.

And while your child may be temporarily learning through a computer screen instead of in a classroom, that doesn’t mean you should delay a trip to the doctor.

All public and private schoolchildren from kindergarten through 12th grade in Florida still need to get the necessary vaccines required to attend school — even if they are learning online, according to the Florida Department of Health.

And yes, this includes students who plan to remain in virtual school once kids can return to campus masked up for socially distanced learning.

Miami-Dade and Broward Public Schools are reminding parents that they need to make sure their children’s immunization records are up-to-date, or that exception requirements have been met, now that the school year is starting again, as usual.

School officials say Florida also hasn’t issued any waivers

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97,000 kids tested positive the last two weeks of July; US remains the world’s most infected country

By Shelton Muro 2 months ago

As the U.S. reached another bleak milestone on Sunday, a glimmer of hope from New York: The Empire State reported its lowest positivity rate since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

New York, for weeks the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, reported the rate — the average number of positive results for every 100 tests — hit a record low 0.78% on Saturday. That figure once reached nearly 47% in early April, although testing was much more limited at the time. The rate had been around 1% since early June.

Meanwhile, the U.S. hit 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, just 17 days after reaching 4 million cases — but experts agree the number of cases is actually much greater – potentially 10 times higher than what’s been reported, according to federal data.

The U.S. remains the most infected country, with about 25% of the worldwide cases.

Here are some

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The Reason Our Kids Can’t Safely Return To School? Our POTUS Is A Dense Cabbage

By Shelton Muro 3 months ago

Talk about a rock and a hard place. This back-to-school season is unlike anything American parents have ever experienced. There are no good options. Whatever you choice you make, you’re a terrible parent according to your neighbor or another parent at your kids’ school or the internet. Whatever choice you make, you’re potentially harming your child emotionally or physically, or both. And, whatever choice you make, you’ll likely end up quarantined anyway and having your kids at home, doing virtual learning for extended periods of time. Because our country and its leaders flatly refuse to get their shit together.

You know where kids can go back to school just fine? New Zealand. Germany. Denmark. Vietnam. Because they actually flattened the curve (in some cases all the way down to zero) unlike the U.S., which did some sort of bizarre half-quarantine for the amount of time it should have taken to

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Here’s how parents can protect their kids from coronavirus as schools reopen

By Shelton Muro 3 months ago

Get ready to pack your back-to-school pencils, binders and … hand sanitizer?

While some schools and universities are opting for remote learning or a hybrid of in-person and online sessions, others are pushing ahead with in-person classes – with proper sanitation protocols, of course. Social distancing markings, COVID program coordinators and smaller class sizes are only a few of the reflections of the pandemic-era classroom experience.

But still, parents may be (reasonably) worried about this transition. Although schools will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines to ensure safety for children, it’s always a good idea to reinforce these standards from home as well.

So what can you do, other than clipping a mini-bottle of hand sanitizer to every backpack? USA TODAY asked two health experts for advice on how parents can keep their students safe and healthy as they prepare for in-person classes. 

New clothes and senior

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Kids less likely to die from coronavirus, but schools could become hot spots for spread

By Shelton Muro 3 months ago

A student gets his temperature checked by a teacher before entering a summer STEM camp at Wylie High School in Texas. Schools across the USA continue to plan on how to reopen schools this fall.
A student gets his temperature checked by a teacher before entering a summer STEM camp at Wylie High School in Texas. Schools across the USA continue to plan on how to reopen schools this fall.

As many school districts across the USA prepare to reopen campuses, some fear classrooms will become the next incubators for large coronavirus outbreaks.

Advocates for resuming school in person, including President Donald Trump, have repeatedly claimed that children pose less of a risk of spreading COVID-19 and that the benefits of returning them to the classroom outweigh the risks of keeping them home. 

Such statements have been used by conservatives, as well as many parents, to argue for a prompt reopening of classrooms.

“We know that children get the virus at a far lower rate than any other part of the population,” U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said during a CNN interview in July. “There’s

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What to know about sending your kids to college during the pandemic

By Shelton Muro 3 months ago

How to go back to college safely during the pandemic
How to go back to college safely during the pandemic

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With the end of summer drawing near, college students and their parents are preparing for a new semester. But for most, going back to school this year will likely look a lot different amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Some colleges and universities are reopening as fully virtual this fall, while others will offer a mix of both online and in-person classes. Those that are choosing to invite students back to campus are doing so with strict sanitation procedures in place along with new changes, like reduced class sizes, solo dorm rooms, and limited dining options. Some are even closing campus after fall break to reduce any risk from out-of-state students who are traveling.

Hannah Grice, a junior at Stevenson University in

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